” This article is the first in a series of six. Each takes a look at some part of our mental machinery, how it relates to our tendency toward religious belief.”

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The Church of Scientology could be dissolved in France if it is convicted in a trial that opened Monday in a Paris court, where the group and seven of its French leaders stand charged of organized fraud and illegal pharmaceutical activity.

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Review of Jerry Coyne’s “Why Evolution is True”

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A discussion of the singularity (when artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence) and the state of the field of artificial intelligence.

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A congressional resolution to declare 2010 “the Year of the Bible” is drawing widespread criticism.

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She says it’s because we’re boring. More likely, it’s because we speak out against the intellectually bankrupt beliefs of religion.

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Scientists are trying to study what conditions are correlated with avoiding dementia in old age.

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The Freethinkers of Finland have used a website campaign to enable more than 150,000 people to officially resign from the Lutheran Church.

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Video of the newly discovered primate fossil said to be a “missing link” of early primates.

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The bus system of Bloomington, Indiana, has accepted ads from the Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign, saying “You can be good without god.”  The company had previously rejected the ads, but then approved it later after being threatened with a lawsuit, on the grounds that the bus company had carried religious ads before.

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Scientists at the American Museum of Natural History unveiled the incredibly complete fossil of a new, 47-million-year-old primate species thought to be an ancestor of humans. Called Darwinius masillae and nicknamed “Ida,” the creature is described as a small and lemur-like.

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The Pentagon has stopped putting Biblical quotes on the cover of the daily briefing for the president.  Under Bush, the Pentagon briefing had quotes such as “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.”

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Some lighter fare: a new movie premiers at Cannes about an ancient skeptic, the 4th-century mathematician and astronomer Hypatia.  (Unfortunately, she ends up getting killed by an angry Christian mob, so maybe not so light after all.)

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Just so you know, Bart Ehrman says he’s not the anti-Christ. Bart Ehrman says most of the New Testament is a forgery but it’s still an important body of work.

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A chemist discovers a plausible pathway for RNA nucleotides to have formed from inorganic chemicals, thus outlining how life may have chemically started.

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A long-running longitudinal study of Harvard College students that started in the 1930’s may begin to shed light on what factors are more conducive to happiness.  An example of scientific inquiry being used to examine issues that have traditionally been the domain of religion.

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Students from Newnham College Cambridge University will no longer say a traditional Christian grace before dinner instead using a secular version.

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Professional medium Patricia Putt was last week subjected to a rigorous scientific test of her powers as the first stage of her bid to claim a $1m prize from the James Randi Educational Foundation

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People’s mindsets are neither fixed by evolution nor infinitely malleable by culture. Dan Jones looks for the similarities that underlie the diversity of human nature.

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Do fleeting changes of facial expression show whether someone is telling lies? Psychologist Paul Ekman believes he has the answer, he tells Jon Henley.

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